Living in Hong Kong, your view is likely not of the ocean, a forest, or even mountains.

Living in Hong Kong, your view is likely not of the ocean, a forest, or even mountains. It’s likely of the building across the street with a direct line of site into another family’s living room. Packed so close, Hong Kong’s views are of architecture. But from that close, you can’t even appreciate the entire building, just a small snippet. Award-winning photographer Michael Wolf, originally born in Munich but now living in Hong Kong, set out to capture the views from residences. His resulting image set and book, Architecture of Density, reveals an abstract sort of geometry, like a gritty, urban Mondrian painting.

Hong Kong is the densest city in the world. At its peak there are at least 110,100 people per square km, although some reports say it could be upwards of 400,000. That’s pretty tight, but it’s also really efficient, because most of these people work very close to where they live. New York and London, which are also dense, have a bit more separation between where people live and work, which increases commute times. If you want to know more, there’s a ton of fascinating articles about density, living and health in Hong Kong from a LSE Cities, recent conference newspaper published in 2011.